The United States has tools to raise productivity in sustainable ways that poor countries don’t.
One of these is a sophisticated research and development (R&D) sector. Historically, U.S. public investments in agricultural R&D have paid off handsomely, with cost-benefit ratios of 20:1 or even higher.1 The United States also contributes to global agricultural R&D, primarily through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Established in 1971, CGIAR is a network of research centers around the globe, all focused on innovations to support poor farmers in developing countries—something that the private sector tends to neglect. Investments in CGIAR have a comparable track record, with a rate of return on investments estimated up to 17:1.2
U.S. support to CGIAR peaked in the early 1980s and then declined steadily for more than two decades. One reason for this, according to The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, was “the erroneous impression that the world’s food problems had been solved. It seemed to some that support for more productivity was no longer needed; food problems came to be understood in some circles as only problems of distribution.”3 2008 brought a rude awakening as food prices surged and a global hunger crisis ensued. At the height of the crisis, U.S. support to CGIAR was only a quarter of what it had been in the early 1980s.4
Agricultural land refers to the share of land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and under permanent pastures. Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded. Source: World Bank
In 2011, when CGIAR turned 40, the global agricultural system appeared eerily similar to the way it had looked in 1971 when the center was founded. At the time, Malthusian predictions of a world growing too fast to keep up with the demand for food were influential. The Green Revolution that spread across Asia and Latin America stilled those voices for a time. But, as described earlier, global leaders became complacent, and investments in both agriculture and agricultural R&D fell off.
In the past decade, the magnitude of the threat that climate change poses to agricultural productivity has become much clearer to researchers and policymakers. We also know more now about the importance of delivering the right nutrition at the right time in life, and about effective ways to do this. All of this is knowledge gained because of investments in R&D.
R&D rarely pays off quickly; it usually takes more than a decade to realize returns on investment. But the results are well worth waiting for, as many examples show.5 Instead of restricting R&D funding, we must urge policymakers and the private sector to stay focused on making the investments that are necessary to solve the urgent problems of global hunger and poverty.
Issues
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